SCUTTLEBUTT 1671- September 20, 2004

Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is a
digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock
talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press
releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always
welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.

PARALYMPIC GAMES
Athens, Greece- U.S. sailors in the 2.4 Metre and Sonar classes moved into
first place in the overall standings at the Paralympic Games following the
second day (Sunday) of competition at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Centre.

The Sonar team of John Ross-Duggan (Newport Beach, Calif.), Brad Johnson
(Milwaukee, Wis./Hollywood, Fla.) and J.P. Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
opened the day in first place following a protest from day one that saw the
disqualification of the race-winning team from Israel. The U.S. team held
on to the overall fleet lead with finishes of 3-6 in today's two races. "We
had an average day today," said Cregnou following the third and fourth
races of the nine-race series. "The winds were very light and they change
throughout the day. That requires a lot of readjusting and changing gears.
It's very, very tough to figure out what the wind will do next."

Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine) won both of today's 2.4 Metre races to
move into first place overall in that 16-boat fleet. Brown took the lead
from defending gold medalist Heiko Kroeger (Germany) late in first race of
the day, and then led wire-to-wire in the second race. With eight points,
Brown holds the top position in the 2.4 Metre standings, with yesterday's
leader Damien Seguin (France) now in second place with 11 points. Kroeger
sits third with 12 points.

OFF THE ROCKS
Saturday, September 18th- Earlier this morning Mirabella V motored clear of
the beach where she has been trapped since Thursday and is heading for La
Ciotat near Marseilles where she will be dry docked to undergo a full
condition check. A metal gantry which had been erected on deck last night
over the keel box to support the 150-ton lifting keel had clearly succeeded
in doing its job. Hydraulic rams had been used to support and possibly lift
the keel enough to free it from the rock in which the keel's bulb had
apparently been wedged.

Paul Johnson who project managed the build of the 247ft yacht was
overseeing the operation. The rescue coincided with an equinocial high tide
which provided Mirabella with vital centremetres of water. For a full
report on why Mirabella ran aground and exactly what was entailed in her
rescue, read the November issue of Yachting World, published early next
month. - Yachting World/David Glenn, http://www.yachting-world.com

PICTURE PERFECT
There is just no way to describe with words how unbelievable the Dryshirt™
is so we have created some pictures and video on this revolutionary
product. If you've been trying to determine how the Dryshirt ™ is different
from Nike dryfit, coolmax or other shirts that just wicks water away,
you'll immediately see the difference once you watch the shirt in action.
The Dryshirt ™ is breathable, repels water, and has an SPF of 50 immersed
or dry. Customized team shirts with your club or team logo available. Call
1(800) 354-7245 or view video, pictures and dealer info:
http://www.sailingproshop.com/dryshirt.htm

QUOTE / UNQUOTE
Shirley Robertson, Britain's double Olympic champion, on whether she will
go for a third gold medal in 2008: "I've seen reports saying the average
wind strength is even lower than Athens. If it looked like we were facing
light and shifty conditions like that, it may influence my decision whether
or not to go to Beijing." - Portsmouth Today, http://tinyurl.com/4e2h7

BIG BOAT SERIES
San Francisco, CA - The 40th rendition of the Big Boat Series presented by
Rolex saw 101 boats competing in two IRC classes and seven one-design classes.

St. Francis Yacht Club named the six Perpetual Trophy winners, who also
received specially engraved Rolex timepieces. These winners were Chris
Perkins and Dave Wilson (San Francisco, Calif.) won the 31-boat J/105
fleet, James Richardson (Boston, Mass./Newport, R.I.) won the nine-boat
Farr 40 class, Stephen Madeira (Menlo Park, Calif.) won the J/120 class,
John Siegel (San Francisco, Calif.) won IRC B class with his Wylie 42,
Nicholas Lykiardopola (London, U.K.) won IRC A class with his Kerr-55, and
Makoto Uematsu (Tokyo, Japan) won the TP52 class.

RELIEF EFFORT
The misery of the poor Caribbean island of Grenada, which took a direct hit
from Hurricane Ivan last week, is being felt miles away in this city's
boating community. A Newport company that manages charter yachts is
launching a novel relief effort for the island's inhabitants. Nicholson
Yachts is collecting donations of clothing that it will then send to the
Caribbean -- not through the Red Cross or other established agencies -- but
aboard its own fleet of luxury vessels.

"Grenada is such a beautiful island and they are really such kind, gentle
people," said Karen Kelly-Shea, who owns the 14-year-old Newport office of
the Antigua-based business. "It struck me that they are extremely
desperate. They really must have a big need -- and for basic things." Ivan
caused about 17 deaths in Grenada, leaving thousands without water,
electricity and phone service. An estimated 90 percent of the homes were
damaged and the spice island's agricultural crops were devastated.

Nicholson represents about 70 yachts worldwide, including 16 that will
leave New England for the Caribbean when this year's disastrous hurricane
season finally peters out. Kelly-Shea said yachts were used to deliver
books and school supplies when Hurricane Louis ravaged Antigua in 1995. For
more information, call 401-849-0344 or http://www.nicholsonyachts.com -
Richard Salit, Providence Journal, http://tinyurl.com/3kj46

"MAN OVERBOARD!"
The first seconds are always critical. A victim may be unconscious,
traumatized, hypothermic…unable to help in his own recovery. Automatically
activated SeaMarshall personal rescue beacons can mean the difference
between a successful recovery and tragedy. For information on SeaMarshall
marine beacons and homing receivers, contact Chip Barber:
admin@chbarber.com or http://www.seamarshall-us.com

NEWS BRIEFS
* Registration is available for US Sailing's Annual General Meeting 2004,
held in Portland OR, October 20th - 24th. Details at the US Sailing
website: http://tinyurl.com/5gpt9

* Newport, RI- Although the remnants of Hurricane Ivan whipped up the
waters off Newport this weekend and forced the cancellation of races on
Saturday and Sunday, nine legendary America's Cup yachts competed in seven
races on Thursday and Friday deciding the winners of the 12-Metre North
American Championship. Herb Marshall's American Eagle, US-21, won in the
Traditional division, Craig Millard's Courageous, US-26, prevailed in the
Modern Division and Edgar Cato's Hissar, KZ-5, defeated Bill Koch's Kiwi
Magic, KZ-7, in the Grand Prix division. For complete regatta details and
results: http://www.museumofyachting.org

* Registration is now available for the 6th International Sailing Summit
(ISS) to be held in Annapolis, MD (October 5&6) and scheduled to coincide
with the Annapolis Sailboat Show (which runs October 7-11). The Summit is
the catalyst to pooling resources, sharing ideas and exploring ways to
develop sailing internationally among regional and local leaders of the
sailing and marine industry, administrators of sailing, media and
representative bodies. Sample speakers include Paul Henderson (ISAF), Janet
Baxter (US Sailing), Thom Dammrich (NMMA), Phillipe Fourrier (FIN), Ron
Holland and Gary Jobson. Complete event details & presentation schedule can
be found at
http://www.sailingsummit.com

* The Mexican team of Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach dominated the
seventy-one boat Hobie 16 North American fleet on Lake Oneida in Syracuse,
NY. The conditions where light and shifty for most of the week with the
exception of Tuesday when the winds topped out at about fifteen knots.
Results: 1.Armando Noriega/ Roderigo Achach, 55 points; 2. Mike Monntague/
Cathy Ward, 77; 3. Bob Merrick/ Eliza Cleveland, 80; 4.Paul Hess/ Mary Ann
Hess, 82; 5. Wall Myers/ Tyler Myers, 83. Photos and full results:
http://www.hobienac.com

* The original line drawings from the boards of Sparkman & Stephens have
been expertly recreated into a series of limited edition fine prints for
yachting enthusiasts' personal art collection. Each serigraph has been
printed on Coventry rag paper by Master Printer Jean Yves Noblet, numbered
and individually signed by Olin J. Stephens. Details available at
1-212-661-1240 or http://www.sparkmanstephens.com

* Porto Cervo, Sardinia - On the fifth and final day of racing at the Rolex
Swan Cup 2004, the fleet was put to a final tactical test in very light and
shifty conditions. In the end it was Roberto Ferrero's Solenia 2 that took
overall fleet honours and was awarded the Rolex Swan Cup. Individual class
winners for the week were: Bugia Bianca (Swan 70) in Class A, Vertigo in
the Swan 45's Class B, and Solenia 2 (Swan 48) in Class C/D. Overall class
winners were presented with a Rolex Submariner timepiece in steel and gold.
- http://www.yccs.it/eng/index.asp

THE PLACE TO BE
It has been a booming summer for Newport Shipyard. The docks have been
active and averaging a dozen yachts of over a 100' at all times. The
Shipyard has added more floating docks and a Med-moor system that make it a
convenient base for large yachts. It has also proven to be a great center
for full-out racing programs such as, Pyewacket, Morning Glory, Rosebud,
Riot and Hissar. Container storage, a full-service yard, dry-sailing
capabilities, Belles café and the unsurpassed boat scene has made Newport
Shipyard the place to be. Contact us at http://www.newportshipyard.com

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
(Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be
edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a
bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best
shot and don't whine if others disagree.)

* From Paul Henderson: Qingdoa and Pusan - these two venues are across the
China Sea from each other (Eastern Sea if you are Korean). The weather
tends to be the same except for Typhoons and August is the Typhoon season.
The Olympic dates were moved a month from July to August which is a little
better for wind like the Great Lakes. ISAF does not rely on some weather
buoy behind a mountain. ISAF does not believe in averages. If you have one
foot in ice water and one in boiling water you have an average condition.

Sailing is the only sport that demands two Test Events starting exactly two
years before the Games. It is why the Sailing venue is always ready well
before the Games. Since every place needs a good marina, Sailing is likely
the most profitable Games installation as it is used for decades as has
happened in Barcelona and Athens, revitalizing a derelict piece of the
waterfront. ISAF bases their predictions on these two Test Events, using
on-site race experience and acts accordingly.

By the way, nothing Sailing does will make it a high-profile Olympic TV
sport so ISAF does what we can for exposure without totally restructuring
the sport. The Internet is geared to Sailing, and the ISAF website had so
many hits from around the sailing world that the site crashed during the
Games. But the ever ingenious Paul Pascoe shifted the load to the Aussie
Hobie Cat site and everything went very well. Clever eh!

* From Rob Stephan (regarding the Parental Supervision story in #1669):
Bingo. You struck a chord with me since I find it to be very difficult to
watch my boys race their own boats, since I am screaming inside my head
about the "obvious shift" that they could have tacked on etc.. while at
Lacrosse games I have a blast since I never played Lacrosse! As I get
older, I am getting wiser and learning to keep my yap shut at youth sailing
events has helped me greatly to realize that the real goal is for them to
have such a good time that when they become adults and look back at their
younger years of sailing it is with a smile and fond memories. If I am
really lucky, once they become adults they will want to share the good
times they have had on the water with their children and friends. That is
the real magic of many great experiences on the water, be able to share it
with others.

* From Felipe Payet (re PeopleSoft possible sponsorship of US A-Cup team
Sausalito Challenge): The plot thickens (and not necessarily in a good
way). On the one hand, we see the Sausalito Challenge AC boat sporting the
PeopleSoft slogan on its hull. On the other, Oracle Corporation's hostile
takeover bid for PeopleSoft appears to be moving forward again, based on
the U.S. Justice Dept's objections to the takeover having been rejected.
This doesn't seem like great news for the Sausalito Challenge... if Oracle
succeeds in purchasing PeopleSoft, will Larry Ellison still allow
PeopleSoft to sponsor a Cup challenge, and go head-to-head against BMW
Oracle? More news coverage of the Oracle/PeopleSoft situation:
http://tinyurl.com/5d8jv

* From Clifford Bradford: I totally agree with Larry Law in 'Butt 1670. I
have to add that there is enough variety of different types of sailing
(type of racing, classes, etc.) that there's no need to make changes to
find some aspect of sailing that a decent number of people will find
exciting to watch. I have to admit that I'm a sports junkie - I can
appreciate almost any sport shown on TV - I was watching table tennis on
ESPN last night, at 7pm no less! Now, I'm sure there wasn't any groundswell
of rabid table tennis fans petitioning ESPN to show table tennis. It's
likely ESPN didn't even pay all the production costs. I'll make a guess
that there are more people who sail in the USA than play table tennis (on a
regular basis). So how does table tennis get on TV while sailing can't? I
don't know the answer to that question but I have suspicions. My guess is
that the table tennis guys produced the shows and lined up the advertising
and ESPN didn't have to do squat but put it on. The fact is that the
popularity of a sport isn't necessarily the main factor in getting it on
TV. I would guess that there's more pool shown on ESPN than track and field
or swimming. Does that make sense? No reason then that we couldn't get more
sailing on TV.

Curmudgeon's Comment: Our guess is that the production cost for sailing is
much greater than that of table tennis or for some of the other sports on
ESPN, (poker, billiards, darts, etc.), which makes it harder for sailing to
get on TV. However, we went to Gary Jobson for his expert comments on the
subject:

* From Gary Jobson: The toughest thing in TV is to actually get on the air.
At ESPN I was able buy the time for most of our sailing programs, except
for the America's Cup. ESPN paid for its own AC production. Sponsors have
been slow to embrace TV. Do they sell more product by running ads?
Sometimes, but not consistently. Once on the air, ratings (number of
viewers) count. In this area sailing does poorly. It is a cycle: low
viewership means unfavorable time slots.

I am intrigued at the comments about the Olympics. No one talked to those
of who actually produced the shows on how we view a better format for the
people watching at home (Gary was hired by NBC for their Olympic sailing
coverage). It could all be done better. The Olympics sells because of
patriotic interest. The organizers did a good job marking up the sails to
match country colors. Very cool!

Outside of the Olympics, the patriotism angle is lacking in other major
sailboat races. When the public doesn't care, the ratings are weak. The low
point in my twenty plus year career in TV was the unfortunate weather
delays in Auckland. For ten straight days, there was no action. We lost any
public interest. Non-sailors laughed at us. The RC should have given
starts, even if the time limit was not met. But the RC dug in their heels,
and the sport has been foundering ever since.

The negative comments I receive don't help. It is hard enough getting
airtime, but complaining forces decision makers to say, why bother. There
are some innovative sailing shows in the works. The standard race format
around the world is tired. Close racing, lead changes, fast boats, short
races, compelling athletes, patriotic teams and emotions are the
ingredients that will draw viewers to give sailing another look. Some good
things are on the way.

THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Regatta Party: A marvelous opportunity to tell new lies to old friends and
old lies to new friends.